The 5-inch Mi 4i is compact, feels solid in your hand, and its rear camera delivers great shots, but what stands out is its Sunlight Display: under harsh lighting, the Mi 4i brightens image details and improves contrast, automatically, so you can clearly see the pictures you’ve taken and even read your text messages so you can text back.

No more heavy squinting or cupping a hand to shade your phone’s screen to see what’s there. (Scroll down to watch the demo video below.)

This impressive pixel contrast adjustment happens on the hardware level. Prior to this, only Super AMOLED displays boasted of having the best outdoor contrast. And yet the P9,799.00 Mi 4i “only” has an IPS display. Bravo, Xiaomi. Let me show you how Spartan the Mi 4i is.

The Mi 4i is a bit thinner and lighter than the Mi 4 but shares the same Spartan profile and camera prowess as Xiaomi’s other phones, including their budget ones.

To simulate harsh lighting, a flashlight is shone on the Mi 4i’s ambient light sensor found near the front camera. Notice how the image of the display is adjusted to reveal details in the parts darkened by harsh light. According to Xiaomi Philippines, this does not significantly eat up resources.

Here’s the superb Mi 4i camera in action. Dim yellowish lighting of the scene is “corrected” and brightened up in real time prior to taking the shot.

The Mi 4i seems to bridge the gap between the higher end Mi 4 and the budget-friendly Redmi 2.

The Mi 4i will be available on Lazada.com.ph on July 29, 2015 and at any of 200-plus authorized retail stores nationwide on August 1, 2015. SMART will be Xiaomi Philippines’ exclusive telco partner; pre-registration starts on July 24, 2015.

The first 50 subscribers to avail through the Smart Online Store will get a FREE 10400 mAh Mi Power Bank. You can pre-register here: link.

Author

Irwin Allen Rivera

Irwin Allen Rivera loves his wife's cooking so much he's now twice the man he used to be. His English essay won a Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature in 2012. His philosophical-horror story appeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction 8 (2013). He was managing editor and lead writer of Sites and Symbols 2 (2005), a coffee-table book about buildings in UP Diliman - his alma mater (BA Philosophy; MA Creative Writing continuing). He worked at the UP Diliman Information Office before shifting to web content writing. His sudden fiction, "Notwithstanding Pigs," initially a Friendster testimonial, appeared in Philippines Graphic (2006) and in Very Short Stories for Harried Readers (2007). He used to write for www.technoodling.net.